Information Silos and Enterprise Resource Planning

Scenario: A company called Colony Nursery and Landscaping opened a new store located a few hundred miles away from its original location. The company wants to implement an award system that awards their customers with points whenever customers make a purchase, but the two stores are not able to share information. Colony Nursery and Landscaping will need to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that will solve the information silo problem by collecting and making this user data available. Colony Nursery and Landscaping is hoping that by providing customers with this award system, they will be able to maintain competitive advantage. Colony Nursery and Landscaping cannot afford to purchase, develop, or maintain this system on-site, so they are investigating cloud solutions.

In addition, for many organizations, Colony Nursery and Landscaping included, information silos make it difficult to tap into needed information. Discuss whether or not the problem of information silos can be solved by using the cloud. Some organizations do not have the resources to construct or maintain their computer infrastructure, so they utilize cloud services instead to reduce costs and improve scalability. In this assignment, you will discuss whether or not the cloud offers solutions for Colony Nursery and Landscaping and identify an application that the ERP system could provide. Compose an essay that includes the elements listed below.

• Define what an information silo is.

• Explain why information silos are a problem for organizations.

• Discuss why organizations are moving to the cloud.

• Determine whether or not using cloud services, such as a cloud-based host for data storage, would solve the ERP information silo problem at Colony Nursery and Landscaping.

• Explain how using the ERP system and awards program would provide a competitive advantage for Colony Nursery and Landscaping.

• Discuss why the implementation of an ERP system might require business process reengineering for Colony Nursery and Landscaping. Be sure to explain the business processes that will be affected (e.g., the customer awards system). Use diagrams or tables as needed, but this is not required.

Your essay must be a minimum of two pages in length (not counting the title and reference pages), and it must be formatted in APA style. You should include an introduction section that gives background and context to your reader. You must use at least two scholarly resources as references. Any information from these resources must be cited and referenced in APA format

Information Silos and Enterprise Resource Planning

Introduction

Information silos are a significant issue of concern, not just for Colonel Nursery but for many firms. Because not everybody in the organization can access the required information, information silos contribute to increased levels of ineffectiveness in the firm.

This problem becomes worse if the organization is information technology. Because of these problems, many companies bear huge losses as a result. This paper will discuss the information silos, the need for Colonel Nursery to move to the cloud, and the implementation of the Enterprise Resource Planning so that the organization can run smoothly.

Information Silos: What are they?

According to James (2019), and information silo is a computer management system that is unable to share crucial information with ease between the parties i.e., between the different departments or computer systems in the organization.

Problems caused by information silos

Because of the vertical nature of information sharing, the flow of information from one part to another is severely hampered. Information silos promote an individualistic work environment where people in the organization only work on their projects, and they do not work together to execute critical projects. There is no priority, and instead of people working on the same product, there is a chance of different preferences. Such an organization will grow slowly (Hollings, 2005).

Because many people lack sufficient, it isn't straightforward to know what exactly is needed of someone. This has an effect of lowering the morale of employees, and goals set are incongruent with overall organization goals. Information silos are a problem for the organizations because they lead to poor decision making since decisions are not made with the right information in place.

Benefits of Cloud for Organizations

Most organizations are now moving to the cloud because cloud computing offers them incredible flexibility that they never had before. They no longer have to purchase servers that are specific for data storage (Mohabbattalab and Von Der Heidt, 2014). Because of ease of access and use, cloud computing saves a lot of time for the organization, and the I.T team can dedicate their resources elsewhere.

The organizations do not have to host a lot of servers so that they can hold their apps. This creates efficiency and saves the organization a lot of money. Overall, the company can soon discover that it will keep on labor expenses since it does not have to employ a lot of people to work in the information Technology department (Mohabbattalab and Von Der Heidt, 2014).

Cloud Storage solution for the ERP problem

Cloud storage solution will create shared access between the different departments in the organization; hence the problem of information silos will be resolved. An internet-based access system powered by the cloud will enable the people to access the data remotely and act on it; hence the company will be able to implement the award system. With cloud storage, the company will optimize and maximize its capacity to serve the customers better because they will have enough room for client data.

ERP and Increasing Competitive Advantage

A company will compete favorably with its competitors due to ERP because it will have more information at its disposal; hence it will be able to make decisions faster, with more ease. The cost-saving that ERP brings to an organization creates efficiency in manufacturing and product delivery; hence customers are more satisfied with the services of the company.

It creates an agile strategy where a company is flexible and can quickly adapt to changes that occur in the business environment. For example, the company can serve the needs of the customers with more ease.

If Colonel Nursery implements the awards program for the customers, this will increase customer loyalty and generate more value for the company. If the awards program is followed by monetary compensation, the effect will be more significant, and customers will continue buying from the company in the hope of winning something. This will increase the market share of the company.

Why ERP System requires Business Process Re-engineering.

ERP is an advanced method of enabling efficiency in the firm; hence the organization requires to carry out the Business Process Re-engineering to improve on crucial production aspects such as turnaround time, the productive capability of the firm, cycle time, and quality of work produced. Business Process Re-engineering also involves designing the process anew and introducing organizational changes. If the organization moves to ERP without revamping its operations, improvement will be small, and there is a potential of the company losing more money.

The business process and system that will be affected include the awards system because it is a Unique Sales Proposal (USP) that involves company customers. The management Information Systems will also be changed since, in re-engineering the company processes, management should ensure that more people are able to access information.

Figure 1: Key Processes of Business Process Re-engineering

Source:http://consultus.hr/business-process-reingeneering/

References

Hollings, J., & Hollings, J. (2005). Avoid information “silos” with effective data management.

Plant Engineering, 59(5), 61–62. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/743552021/ Accessed on 17/2/2020

James, C, (2019). Information Silos

Retrieved from: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/information-silo.asp

Accessed on 17/2/2020

Mohabbattalab, E., Von Der Heidt, T., Mohabbattalab, B., & Mohabbattalab, E. (2014). The

perceived advantages of cloud computing for SMEs. GSTF Journal on Computing (JoC), 4(1), 61–61. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1660081487/